Tymon Mellor: Mining is always a high risk enterprise, but in the case of the Lam Tsuen lead mines, it was compounded by remote terrain, objecting villagers and corrupt officials. This is the story of the lead mines on the Lam Tsuen river at Ng Tung Chai, near Tai Po. After the Second World War, interest in mining picked up […]
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Tymon Mellor: Mining for Wolframite at Sha Lo Wan started in late 1951 and by March, 1952 around 700 miners, growing to 1500 were working the hillsides on North Lantau. After an initial find in a gully on a weathered outcrop, the miners started digging tunnels to extract the minerals from the veins. Mining continued throughout the 50’s and into […]
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Tymon Mellor: With the completion of Tai Tam (Upper) reservoir in 1888, the city of Victoria now had a secure water supply. The “big reservoir at Taitam” would have sufficient capacity to support the population of 146,000; but now it was time to improve the supply networks[i]. However, with a growing population, unreliable rainfall and the introduction of residential water […]
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Tymon Mellor: The first water supply and distribution network for Kowloon commenced operations on the 24th December 1895. The source of the water was from a series of wells, providing a daily capacity of 232,000 gallons and supporting a population of 13,200. By 1898, the demand for water was out-stripping supply; a new water source was required along with additional […]
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Tymon Mellor: Hong Kong International Airport handles over 1,000 aircraft movements a day, a long way from the first Hong Kong airfield at Sha Tin, where at 5:10pm on 18th March, 1911 Charles Van den Born, a Belgian undertook the first powered flight in the territory. Flying a 1910 Farman Mk II bi-plane named “Wanda”, he made a short flight […]
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Tymon Mellor: West Brother Island is located between Tuen Mun and Lantau Island. It is 4km away from the northern coast of Lantau Island. The island, along with East Brother Island and Reef Island, are known as The Brothers. The West Brother Island Graphite Mine operated from 1952 to 1971 with most of its production exported to the United Kingdom […]
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Tymon Mellor: Following the completion of Pok Fu Lam Reservoir in 1871, the City of Victoria (modern Central) had a secure water supply throughout the year. However, within a year it was already recognised that the supply would not meet the growing demands of the population. A number of proposals were prepared to develop the Tai Tam catchment and supply […]
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Tymon Mellor: Construction of the Kowloon Canton Railway included the excavation of the Beacon Hill tunnel through the Kowloon hills. At the time, the tunnel at 7,212ft or 2,198m was the longest tunnel in China and the fifth longest tunnel outside Europe. The southern and northern portals were remote from existing villages and sickness among the workers was common. To […]
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Tymon Mellor: The acquisition of Kowloon was primarily undertaken as a military exercise, but with it came the responsibility to provide fresh water for the existing population and the new large military contingent. The solution was to establish a number of wells and an associated rudimentary water distribution system, elements of which can still be seen today. The first official […]
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Tymon Mellor: The supply of fresh drinking water to the residents of Hong Kong has always been a challenge, not because the territory is particularly short of water, but because the continuously fast-growing demand has always out stripped supply. The first attempts to address this conundrum were taken in the 1860’s with the construction of the first water supply reservoir […]
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